New Beginnings
by Shepard-Vakarian
Summary: Hawke & Aveline are living together, working to re-build Kirkwall after their surrender to the templars. With Anders gone, the Circle of the Magi undergoing reformation and the new Templar Order starting up, how will the two manage to keep the peace? FemHawke Spirit Healer Mage. AU Post DA2. Aveline & Hawke romances TBC.
1. Chapter 1

A New Circumstance in Romance

Bending the elements and spirits to suit your needs was all very well – unless you were roommates with the Captain of the Guard.

"Hawke, _please_ can you stop using your magic to tease the dog? He's already getting over-excited!" said Aveline, smirking under that insistent scowl. She wasn't very good at concealing her amusement in my antics.

"You love me really." I chirped, continuing to shoot pulses of bright lights from my fingers under the dinner table. We both giggled at the sound of the dog wincing and barking excitedly, the sound of his paws scratching the floor indicating that he was attempting to catch the light with little success.

Laughing loudly, Aveline eventually regained her composure.

"Hawke, _please.." _she drawled, causing me to retract my magic with a minor pout and a conciliatory gesture of shooing the dog out of the dining room.

Aveline stole a few minutes of my time after that discussing the recruitment of the new templars. At first, in a contemplative manner I indulged her eager suggestions that we should proceed with training, even prior to admittance to the Templar order, in order to utilize our chances at recruits. However, the conversation began to turn to the newly reformed Circle of Magi and how mages were still resisting in favor of roaming the Free Marches as an apostate.

"And what would you have me do," I said, "put myself in handcuffs and offer myself to the Circle to set an example? Do you really think as long as the Champion of Kirkwall is a mage – and free – that anyone would think you as anything more than a hypocrite?"

The tremors in my voice rose as my mind shot back to Meredith threatening the mages of Kirkwall, remembering how I had tried to save them. Ultimately, the cause was hastened by Anders' actions. Surrendering to them was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do, but it had seemed to be the only peace that could be made in Kirkwall. What would the future have held if I had attempted to circumvent any attempt on a mages' life; only to find that the hatred for mages was such that my efforts would be fruitless.

Instead, Meredith was killed and myself with Aveline had held peace talks with the remaining members of the two sides. The templars were given confirmation of their status within Kirkwall as long as the treatment of apostates was revised in favour of rehabilitation as opposed to tranquillity. The hardest task was convincing the Circle of Magi that reformation was necessary in order to rid themselves of the more 'politically radical' templars lurking in their midst.

Without the assistance of King Alistair, this feat would've proven impossible. Surprisingly, he was very accepting of our proposed changes. Even with his history as a Templar, I had expected a much more reluctant attitude to the idea of changing centuries old traditions. In fact, his words were 'oh, that sounds like fun!' and he then proceeded to crack jokes as Aveline and I outlined our plans in detail. Not a very serious King; but he was a very progressive one.

"Hawke? Your a million miles away."

Aveline touched my shoulder as if to alert me to her presence in the room.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, Aveline. I was just thinking about.. um, the patrol schedules for next week."

At these words, Aveline thrust herself across the desk to find a quill and began writing immediately. This was a common occurrence, Aveline was one of the most efficient people I knew. Sometimes I wondered if she was even human.

Clearing my throat, my brain started to devise an improvised idea in regards to the patrol schedules next week. Aveline was too wrapped up in discussing every layer of the plan that she didn't seem to notice my initial hesitance. Kirkwall had far from forgotten the fight between the mages and the templars but it wasn't a topic that many chose to dwell upon. In fact, all diaries and journals written during this time were currently being cased up and sealed as pieces of Kirkwall's history.

As for Aveline, she moved into my estate when Anders fled Kirkwall. She had witnessed first-hand the atrocities that he had committed yet still served as confidant for me when he disappeared. She was, by all definitions of the word, a true friend to me. Neither of us had someone special, so we would spend many a night laughing about how men were simply too much work for either of them to deal with. It was a tragic lie that we told ourselves whilst simultaneously knowing that the lonely nights were at times hard to bear.

Anders &amp; I had been happy together; right up until about three years after the Qunari left Kirkwall. After that, I noticed Anders looking sullen and throwing more enthusiasm into his manifestos and free-mage speeches than in his career, his life, his home or his partner. Though it tore me apart to discover that he had fled Kirkwall after the battle, part of me felt relieved that perhaps Anders could finally find himself again. As for Aveline, she appeared to be a passenger in her own love life, whilst a commanding officer in every other aspect of herself. She waited years for love to find her again after the death of her husband; but nothing ever seemed to feel right, from what she recalled to me. That sense of belonging to someone was instead replaced with the realities of keeping her guards alive.

One year on, whilst Aveline &amp; I are striving to build a better Kirkwall, it has dawned on me that with inspired change comes new circumstances and perhaps new beginnings.

We'll see, won't we?


	2. Chapter 2

"If the body is protected from your blade, attempt to restrain the arms or bear him to the ground!" Aveline's voice sounded through the training grounds as the new guard recruits attempted to tackle the flailing arms of mechanized training dummies littered across the field. She spoke as if straight out of her own training. Now that Kirkwall had surrendered to the templars, all guards were required to be trained in disengaging a mage in combat. That wasn't the only thing bothering Aveline, what concerned her most was that half of their recruits were getting sent to the templars with little or no consent offered to the recruit in question. The templars needed numbers, but the city was still rife with criminal activities. Not that she ever revealed this uncertainty to her guardsmen; her face was as stern and stoic as could be until the door closed behind her at the end of the day.

That was usually when I greeted her with a witty remark or a comment about how we could survive a Qunari attack but failed at keeping the nugs out of the garbage. Bringing her shield inside, Aveline groaned when she caught a glimpse of the dog wagging it's tail impatiently for playtime.

"Can't you ever entertain yourself?" she moaned, her body ready to fall as she slumped into one of the wooden chairs in the dining room. It was my responsibility to have food on the table; after all, I was an apostate that so far had avoided being sent to our recently formed Circle of Magi on the merits of fame and to a larger extent, invisibility. With my long blonde hair tied up, I served up a plate of two slabs of lamb drowned in an ale stew.

Back in Lothering, cooking had been my responsibility. Carver was too impatient and Bethany too nervous to prepare anything edible – not that I minded, as it gave me a chance to repay Mother for all the years she knowingly harboured an apostate – two in fact. It had been years since I lost my sister fleeing Lothering and Mother still believed she had lost a son as well at her time of death, as the Grey Wardens were never forthcoming as to where Carver was or even if he were still in the order. Aveline tiptoed over the topic of family as if I were fragile. I was too close to my heart to know if others could see the pain in my eyes as I remembered coming to Kirkwall as a family. Now it was mostly just me and Aveline.

Presenting the food at the table, Aveline caught my eye. It was no coincidence that today I was reminiscent of those days. That day was the anniversary of Wesley's death, causing Aveline to force down her food with a pained look. My eyebrows furrowed, my head cocked to the side.

"Do you plan on chewing that lamb, or just swallowing it whole?" I asked, trying to inject some humor into the situation. Aveline glared daggers, scarcely looking up from her plate.

"Hawke, don't." she warned.

I heeded her warning. We finished our food and Aveline fled the mansion in silence, presumably to make some well-considered donations to the Hanged Man fund.

I sighed. Integrating Champion of Kirkwall status with 'mage apostate' wasn't easy. It meant that I could rarely leave the mansion without Aveline's back-up. Part of a promise that I'd made to Knight-Captain Cullen shortly after Meredith was destroyed by red lyrium. 'Stay out of the templars' way and I'll give them no reason to come after you' he said, with empathy in his eyes. It was a rare form of compassion that I had hardly seen since.

Other than the templar brigades patrolling Kirkwall regularly and the extra guard training however, things in Kirkwall had settled into a sort-of normal. There was still a hatred for Anders' deeds and a promise from most townsfolk that he'd be killed on sight, a thought that stung my heart as I drifted into a troublesome sleep. Sleep had become more of a tiresome activity than the day itself at times. After an unknown amount of time, I felt the lure of sleep fall away from me. In the darkness, my eyes fluttered open, then I saw him.

"Anders?"


	3. Chapter 3

There had been a time in which Anders and I had slept together in the very bed in which I slept alone now, letting my body be enveloped in warm blankets that allowed me to forget about such times. At least for a while. Not while I slept, I had to confess to myself that my sleeping wasn't what it used to be. Without his body next to me. While I missed him, I recalled what outcry there might be in Kirkwall if he ever returned.

My memories took me to the last year of our relationship, when the templars strengthened their hold on the mages. I found myself coming home to Anders each night, checking on him, ensuring that he wasn't being Justice and torturing templars. In hindsight, there was a fear inside myself that the love we once had transformed into something more akin to my status and wealth providing a comfortable, safe place to hide as he plotted revenge against the complacency of the chantry. Anders had explained that this was the nature of being with him, that if I expected flowers and sonnets to look elsewhere.

In the darkness, my eyes fluttered open from my slumber. It was then that I saw him.

"Anders?"

There must have been some kind of mistake. For a moment I froze as I stared up at the face of Anders. His skin was worn, yet held a rugged quality that suggested he'd been sleeping rough. His body was leaned over me as if he had been watching me sleep. A few new scars I recognized above his eyebrow and around the lips, my eyes lingered at his lips for a moment before sense pulled me back to his gaze. Surely he couldn't have just barged in like this, without stirring me in my sleep?

My hair was hanging loose past my shoulders like a waterfall, splitting at my chest to reveal small patches of skin between my small clothes. The situation might look intimate, but in truth I was in too much shock to think that this were anything more than a sleep-deprived delusion or a vivid dream. Anders calmed my steadily rising nerves as he spoke for the first time.

"It's alright. Aveline knows I'm here. She let me in."

I let out an audible release of breath – then instantly regretted it as I saw him raise an eyebrow.

"What did you think I was going to do to you?" he inquired, making me realize that actually, if this were the same Anders that I knew all that time ago, I was in no danger.

"You should know, watching people sleep is sort of creepy." I replied under my breath as my body lifted up from the bed. In return, Anders held back his frame and readjusted his position so that he was perched on the edge of the bed beside me.

His chuckle still made me smile, although there were so many unanswered questions. Where did he go? Why didn't he say goodbye? Was he still possessed by the spirit of Justice? Why did he come back?

Suddenly, I was struck with a fear that he would be coming back to Kirkwall. There was nothing left for him here, he would surely be hunted down and killed. You couldn't take two steps in Kirkwall without groups of mercenaries wanting to straight-up murder you. And that was just for being an innocent night-walker; the man who blew up Kirkwall's chantry would be a prize on their shelf to sell right next to their Knight-Commander Meredith statue. The last page of that turbulent time. But wait, Aveline let him in?

"_Aveline_ let you in? Are we talking about the same Aveline?" I raised in a quizzical tone.

H couldn't be referring to the same no-compromise roommate that I had been living with. Aveline had been so on edge recently that the only conclusion that was plausible would be that she failed to recognize him in a drunken stupor from her evening at the Hanged Man.

"Is she – I mean – is she..?" I stammered, struggling to find the way to ask if she was eavesdropping on this conversation for my safety. Neither of us had seen Anders in so long and Aveline had a protective side.

"No, she's not listening in. Although I'm pretty sure she's expecting to hear you throwing me out of the door any minute" he responded, avoiding my gaze.

That did sound like her and perhaps she was giving Anders the benefit of the doubt. A generous offer, considering Anders did murder chantry-faithful citizens and the Grand Cleric, as well as started a war that may well have left every mage in Kirkwall tranquil or dead. In the circumstances, it was bewildering to think that he hadn't been arrested on sight. How did he manage to travel here without getting recognized, anyway?

"Look, I don't expect you to want me here. All I ask is that you listen to what I have to say and if you want me to go.. I'll know that coming back was a mistake."

I was starting to wonder if there would come a time during this conversation when Anders might look at me without that unforgiving light in his eyes, that pained expression, the despair hidden behind the words that remembered every second of our broken relationship.

"I never left Kirkwall."

"You never? What? Yes, you did! I read the note that you gave to Aveline saying that you had left for my own good and that you loved me and -"

"No, I didn't." He cut me off. My lips pressed together, holding back my frustration until he was done speaking. In my mind, the events of what happened seemed as true as the sky that was blue. Apparently, this wasn't the case. He had been in Kirkwall the whole time. Where had he been? What had he been doing?

"After the battle, after I gave Aveline the note, I hid underground with some mages that fled when the templars turned their swords against them. I've been in hiding ever since. I was ready to leave but there were so many mages that needed my help. Women, children who didn't know anything but the Circle. They didn't know how to control their powers, most of the children saw family being cut down by templars before they ran. I couldn't just leave them...-"

"And the whole time you decided not to tell me where you were? That you were safe? That the letter that I held dear as your last contact to me, was actually a smokescreen to keep me from looking for you?"

After a long silence, Anders let out a sigh.

"It was easier that way." he spoke resignedly. I threw my hands in the air in aggravation, resisting the urge to turn away only because I was in bed and there was literally nowhere to turn.

With a hard tone, Anders regained his stern composure and seemingly resumed his train of thought.

"There's a mage from the Anderfels, Maverick. He and his wife Fauna were part of the group, scared just like everyone else. Of the templars, of the chantry, of what would happen to them if they were caught. Maverick... he tried to convince us that blood magic was the only way to survive. If we asked for the help of demons, they would ensure that any who slew our fellow mages would pay for their crimes."

I could hear the disgust in Anders' voice. I wish I knew whether it was for the suggestion of blood magic and demon summoning, or the thought that those templars yet lived.

"What happened?" I asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"I told them that it wasn't the way. I told them that we needed to keep a low profile, stay out of sight. If we eliminated the templars here, that there were sure to be more that soon followed. We couldn't save everyone by drawing attention to ourselves and making deals with demons was _definitely_ not justified. So they left."

I nodded but remained quiet. I feared that anything I said would be barely audible as I was still recovering from the major shock that he had _lied_ to me, _again._ Once when manipulating me to collect ingredients for a 'Tevinter potion' that turned out to be some sort of magical explosive that killed innocent people, now this. It made me... cautious.

"So, umm.." I cleared my throat, my hand scratching the side of my neck in a nervous attempt to convince him that I hadn't slipped into a coma.

"Why are you here?"

He looked down, then returned my gaze. I knew there was more to this, but I didn't know what the point was in telling me any of this.

"There's a rumor that Maverick was spotted at the new Viscount's side. Apparently he has a position of wealth and nobility within Kirkwall. If he is a practising blood mage, he could take control of the Viscount, maybe let a demon possess him or... I don't know. It'd be chaos. This is a vengeful mage who wants to see Kirkwall fall apart."

I raised an eyebrow. "Boy, doesn't this sound familiar" I mumbled, shaking my head and walking as if in a daze towards the window of my bedroom.

Anders scoffed and gave an indifferent shrug.

"Look, I don't care if you hate me. You're the Champion of Kirkwall. You can't let this mage go unpunished, if he is influencing the Viscount."

"Wouldn't we have seen or heard something about the Viscount perhaps dancing under the moon preaching to Dumat, or something? This seems quite out of nowhere."

"I know. And if it is just a rumor, then no harm done. But I know a way we can find out. I've heard that the Viscount is holding a ball at the Keep. I'm assuming the Champion of Kirkwall has an invitation..."

I nodded hesitantly. "It... came in the mail, yes."

"I say, we go to the ball. You won't recognize Maverick, but I will. We can see if he's there. The Viscount would invite any noble friend of his. And if he's not there, well, I guess we can suppose there's no danger."

I tsked, unable to believe what I was hearing. My eyes transfixed on the window, although I could hear movement from outside the room. Perhaps Aveline was getting impatient.

"Don't you think you'd be recognized at a ball with every important person in Kirkwall in attendance?" I asked, unconvinced.

"No. I'll wear a mask. Besides, if anyone does figure it out, that's why I need you to come with me. No one will make a scene over a guest of the Champion of Kirkwall, no matter who they are. And I'll be gone before anyone can come looking for me." he drawled, as if I were wrong to question his methods.

In truth, a part of me had always hoped that he'd return. But not like this. Seeing him without a shade of remorse or regret for what happened to Kirkwall or between us made me think that the passion and heat between us all those years ago must've burned away all sense and reason that I had. There was none of that left now.

"Just do this for me. _Please. _All I'm asking is for you on my arm for one night. For the safety of Kirkwall! What's wrong with that? Are you... seeing someone else!?" his tone was raw and ragged. I could feel his gaze burning the back of my head. He was watching me closely for my answer.

At that very moment, Aveline burst in to assert that everything was alright, glaring daggers at Anders. In that same breath, I responded:

"Yes! I am. I am seeing someone else. And what's more, you're asking for my help after lying to me on the basis of a _rumor_! Do you honestly think I'd risk my reputation on a _hunch?_ Leave. Now."

I turned to face him and saw that my frosty reception was reciprocated by Aveline. Anders looked at us both, opened and closed his mouth a few times as if about to answer, but didn't.

The silence sliced through the room like the blade of a guillotine. After a long pause, Anders left the room. Aveline and I stood here listening to the sound of his footsteps and the slam of the front door as he left the mansion.


End file.
